Natsu's promise of rage
by Jammiedo
Summary: When a certain salmon-haired boy returns to the Guild all battered up, what are people to expect? Eventually NaLu.
1. Chapter 1

The salmon-haired teenager stumbled clumsily towards the Guild Hall. He'd been gone for the best part of three weeks, not a single word had been given from the employer or the teenager himself. From side the Hall, the members looked towards the Guild's large, arched doors, to see the silhouette drawing closer. The teenager stopped. To the members, so did the silhouette. A thud shortly followed as the teenager collapsed. Nobody moved. They all saw the same thing trail behind the teenager as he collapsed; a long, scaly scarf. They all realised exactly who it was. All of them frozen with shock. All but Lucy. She had her forehead resting on her forearm at the side of the bar. A muffled moan came from her, unaware of what was going on.  
"Mirajaaane... when's he coming baaaack? My rent's due soon... I need him back so we can go on a mission...!"  
There as no reply.  
"Mirajane?" she tried again.  
Still no reply. Lucy looked up to see Mirajane with her eyes wide open, and mouth slightly ajar, facing towards the doors.  
"W-what's up?" she slowly turned her head to notice everyone else was the same. "Seriously wh-."  
She saw it. The scarf. She knew.  
"Oh my god...NATSU!" she screamed, as she ran as fast as she could to the collapsed silhouette, with tears in her eyes.  
The collapsed teenager groaned.  
"L-Lucy..." as he stretched out one of his battered and bloody hands.  
She took it and clasped it between her own, she sat arcing over him, he felt teardrops fall onto his hair.  
"Don't...cry...Lucy... I'll be...fine" he said, as he coughed uncontrollably.  
"What the heck happened to you...?" she whispered, "Gray, come over and help me get Natsu to the infirmary!" she shouted to the navy-haired teenager, who was just as speechless as the rest. "And put some clothes on, will you!" she added, to hear a gasp of shock come from him soon after, not realising he was stood only in his boxers.  
"Stupid idiot, what was he thinking...?" Gray muttered under his breath as he ran over to Natsu's body, which seemed to look worse the closer he got to it. 


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone expected the worst when the Guild's medical advisor; Poryluscia, exited the infarmary and headed for the Guild's entrance. The old woman with point eyes, dragon-esque cloak and a large crescent moon pin sticking through the bob in her grey hair did not speak a word, or look anyone in the eyes.  
"How is he?" Lucy asked after the woman. Poryluscia stopped. She looked at the ground, shoock her head and sighed. Lucy's legs caved in beneath her as she burst into tears. The woman sarted to move again, taking in the disbelieveing looks she was being given from behind her. Erza, the S-class member with scarlet hair, rose from her seat.  
"We should begin preparations for the funeral; we have suffered a terrible loss...!" Erza exclaimed, her voice quivering, whilst Poryluscia continued her way to the doors.  
"When should it be...?" Gray questioned, still in disbelief.  
"Three days!" Poryluscia shouted with a slight croak in ehr voice.  
"What! Why so soo-"  
"Shush, child!" Poryluscia interrupted, a grin started to form at the side of her mouth, "Three days. That's how long it'll take for him to be back to his old self"" she shouted back as she finally left through the doors. Silence followed. Except for small, quiet sobs still coming from Lucy, however they were no longer in sadness, but in joy.  
The near-silence was broken by a loud bang coming from the infirmary, Lucy quickly got up and rushed over to see what had caused it. She swung the door open only to have herself plant her palm into her face a few seconds later. On the floor was Natsu, sprawled out with a bowl of apples next to him and the sheets of the infirmary bed hanging slightly on the floor. It seemed as though he'd tried to reach for an apple from the bowl on the bedisde table from in bed, accidentally tipped the bowl, lost his grip and tumbled out of bed. Gray and Erza entered the room shortly after.  
"...Really?" Erza sighed with a small chuckle. As soon as Gray saw the salmon-haired idiot on the floor, he broke into a fit of laughted.  
"I thought she said it'd take three days! He's already as stupid as he was before!" he eventually spluttered out between laughs. 


	3. Chapter 3

All eyes were on Makarov, considering he was the only person who was capable of letting Natsu go on the mission. One day Natsu simply left, and Makarov is the only person who knew, yet didn't say a word.  
"The only thing that I know about Natsu's mission is that the employer had information on a Guild, I'm unaware of said Guild or as to why Natsu reacted how he did, so stop looking at me like that, and may I remind you that I am the Master, here." Makarov explained.  
"What do you mean? How exactly did he react?" asked Lucy, slightly regretting her question.  
"Put it this way, I have never seen Natsu look so cold-blooded before, whoever this Guild is, Natsu intends to kill. As we all know, this has never been a reaction from Natsu before, when he's well, I highly recommend that we try our best to keep him calm, and to not ask about the mission. We don't know what he'll do if he s reminded, and I'd rather not find out." Makarov stated.  
"Won't he realise something's up, though?" Macao replied, whilst smoking on a cigarette, "He's not stupid well, he's not oblivious to people s feelings, any way." Macao added. Lucy felt herself choke up a little at the sound of these words.  
D ja vu seemed to occur as a loud bang was heard coming from the infirmary, but this time it was louder. Nobody reacted this time, expecting yet another stupid act on Natsu's behalf. That was until a dragon's growl was heard. Was the day of Igneel's return finally here? 


	4. Chapter 4

Lucy burst into the infirmary only to freeze in shock. No Dragon. No wall. Just Natsu, covered in blood and fire.  
"If those bastards think they have the right to show their faces around here after what they've done, then they've got another thing coming!" Natsu roared, opening his wound.  
"Natsu! Calm down!" Lucy ran over to embrace him.  
"No! Stay back!" Natsu shouted back, as he tried to douse his flames, to no avail. "Who did this...and why is the wall gone!" Lucy shouted, slightly dumbfounded.  
" What?" Natsu suddenly calmed down, his flames reduced to nothing, he looked just as confused as Lucy, then noticed the absence of the wall. "Oh, uhm..."  
"Natsu. Nobody s there. Mirajane checked the magic barrier, nobody s passed through it. Erza slowly walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.  
"Then...what did I see...?" Natsu wondered.  
" That's what we were about to ask you." Gray returned.  
Natsu turned around to see half the Guild crowded around him, looking worried and slightly scared of his outburst. He slowly laid back in the infirmary bed, and muttered something under his breath, with a tear forming in the corner of his eye. Nobody heard, but Lucy could read his lips. 


	5. Chapter 5

Everyone shuffled out slowly, nobody had seen Natsu cry since Lisanna's death, except for Lucy though, this was the very first time seeing Natsu become emotional over something, then again, she'd never seen him so angry over something this way before, she'd admittedly seen him when he's on a rampage (which was scarily often), but never had she felt such a murderous intent emanating from him. Lucy was the last person to leave, and could hear growls coming from Natsu several seconds later. Lucy could have sworn she heard Natsu growl the word "Titan", she knew she had heard that somewhere before. Lucy was instantly reminded of Makarov, she was sure that the magic he used was nicknamed "Titan", but what on Earthland did Makarov's magic have to do with Natsu? Lucy peered at the other side of the Guild, Makarov sat with his head in his hands, she wasn't sure whether to go over to him or not, but she felt the need to find out just what was going on, and so she slowly made her way toward him.

"You heard him too, huh?" Makarov mumbled before Lucy could even speak.

"Master. Surely you must know what's going on. I just want to help." Lucy replied, her voice quivered with sadness.

"Lucy, I assure you, if I could tell you, I would. I understand Natsu means a lot to you."

Lucy couldn't help but be taken aback at his words, why couldn't he tell her, did he truly know how she felt?

"Ask Natsu."

"Mast-"

"Trust me. Tell him you know about the Prominence."

"…The Prominence…? Please don't say this has got something to do with that guy from 2 years ago…"

"Bora the Prominence. Natsu told me that you had a run-in with him before you joined."

"What has he got to do with Natsu?"

"Put it this way, he's now the master of his own Guild. A Dark Guild."

"Are you aware of what they aim to do?"

"Lucy. I've already said too much. Ask Natsu."

Lucy knew that there was no more information that she could coax out of the old man, so she thanked him and began to walk away.

"Oh, and Lucy?"

"Yes?" she turned around, hoping for an additional answer.

"Natsu doesn't talk in his sleep. If you heard him say something…he meant for you to hear it, it's up to you as to what you do with that information."

Lucy couldn't help but be slightly taken aback by this statement, left with more questions than she started.

She turned on her heels and made her way to entrance, she decided to wait until Natsu was fully recovered.


	6. Chapter 6

The gears in Lucy's head were working over-time, she couldn't bring herself to ask Natsu about Bora, she felt that she needed to figure it out for herself, Natsu had already been through so much in whatever mission he was expected to do, and with Natsu expected to be back to his old self by the end of the next day, she didn't have long. Also, she couldn't help but think that it wasn't just her and Makarov that had knowledge of "The Prominence", she could've sworn she heard Erza say "Dragon" and "Lucy" in the same sentence, baffling her further.

"Erza." Lucy had decided to confront Erza about this conundrum that she was sure had some connection to.

"Lucy?" Erza spun around on her chair, with a plate of strawberry cheesecake held in the palm of her hand.

"I'll…let you finish." Lucy backed away slowly, if there was one thing she knew, it was to NEVER come between Erza and her strawberry cheesecake.

"What is it?" Erza said, padding the side of her mouth with a napkin.

"I heard you speaking to Makarov about something, and I could've sworn I heard my name being thrown into the conversation, may I ask what it was about?" Lucy replied, being slightly worried about whether Erza may see the request as sounding nosey.

"I'm sorry, Lucy. I was told not to speak of it to anybody else."

"I don't mean to sound rude, but if you're not to speak of it to anybody else, why would you speak with him out in the open like that?"

"Well, we were unaware that you were around…" Erza said, but she realised her mistake.

"That _I_ was around? What about the others?" Lucy couldn't help but feel frustrated by Erza's words.

"Lucy. Just don't. I mustn't say anything. I'm sorry."

"I swear, if this has something to do with Natsu and his state…" but Lucy couldn't finish the empty threat.

As Lucy was walking away from Erza, she could notice Makarov leave the infirmary out of the corner of her eye. She was sick of the secrecy…she wanted to know what happened, and why.

"Fine…you guys win." Lucy muttered under her breath, as she made her way towards the entrance.

"Lucy." A quiet voice came from behind her.

"Urgh. WHAT!?" she spun on her heels with a scowl on her face, only for her to regret her manner straight after. Wendy stood in front of her, with dry tear trails on her face.

"Natsu wants to see you for a minute." Wendy whimpered.

"Hey…I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that…I've just been all over the place today, my mind is ready to explode..." Lucy apologised, and hugged Wendy lightly, "Thank you for telling me." she finished.

Lucy's heart was nearly jumping out of her chest as she made her way to the infirmary door, she wasn't even sure why. At the same time, she could somehow feel that there were multiple pairs of eyes following her, and she wasn't even sure about that, either.

Finally, she placed her fingertips on the door handle, preparing herself to go in. Suddenly, the door opened, and Lucy let out a small gasp. Mirajane stood at the door, took notice of Lucy's reaction and quietly giggled, then squeezed past her in the door-way. "Good luck", she whispered. Just _what_ was Natsu asking to see her for?


	7. Chapter 7

Lucy slowly stepped through the slightly arched infirmary door and made her way to window by the side of Natsu's bed and stared out of it momentarily.

"You asked to see me, Natsu?" Lucy's heart was beating rapidly as she waited for a reply.

"Mmmn…" Natsu appeared to be sleeping.

Lucy turned around at the effortless noise that was made.

"Really?" she thought to herself, but couldn't help but be reminded of the incident the day before when Natsu collided with the floor over a single apple.

"…Mmmn…wha-?" Natsu arose from his half-hearted slumber.

"Oi."

"Who…OH!" Natsu flailed his arms around when he realised who was in the room.

"You asked to see me, you dolt."

"No, I…no I didn't." Natsu looked exceedingly confused at this accusation.

"Well if you didn't…then why did Wendy come and say that you did?"

"I 'unno."

The both of them exchanged blank looks.

Silence followed.

About 30 seconds went by and Lucy gulped to speak.

"So uhh…someone said something about 'The Prominence'…they said that I should ask you about that."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Would I have asked if I was?" Lucy crossed her arms at this retaliation.

Silence begun again.

"Exactly." Lucy answered her own question.

"Look. Lucy. I really don't what you getting involved in this, you've nothing to worry about, I can handle this myself."

" "_I can handle it myself"_? You do realise what state you came in the other day, right?" Lucy replied, not believing what he'd just said.

"Ye-."

"Let me finish." Natsu shut his mouth. "By the looks of it, you nearly died. What if you didn't get away? What do you think would have happened then? Do you seriously think that the others would be so calm if you hadn't have come back the other day? You've been here much longer than what I have, and you surely must know how the others would react, you idiot!" she shouted at him, with tears streaming down her face, she was met with Natsu's chest soon after, he'd mustered his strength to lean up and pull her towards him.

"This is exactly why I didn't want you to know anything, you weirdo."

"You're calling me the weirdo, when you can breathe fire?"

"Shut up, you're the one who can summon every type of meat there is."

They both chuckled as Natsu slowly started to drift back to sleep, and Lucy did the same, whilst resting on Natsu's chest still.

Mirajane poked her head through the door and smiled at the scene before her, the two sleeping had somehow locked their hands together, she left the room again and silently squeaked to herself.

"Ok, no more people are to visit Natsu for now, he's sleeping."

"What happened to Lucy?" Erza called from a nearby table.

"Oh, she's sleeping as well." she smiled.


End file.
